Carrollton Middle School Wins First Annual S.T.E.M. Education Awards

Published Sep 18, 2012

And the Winner is…

As we previously mentioned, Fogo nominated the Carrollton City School’s ROV Program for the first annual S.T.E.M. Education Awards.  Well boys and girls, the results are in and Fogo is pleased to announce that Carrollton Middle School won!

These awards recognize and celebrate schools, extracurricular programs, public-private partnerships, science agencies and post-secondary education outreach programs for outstanding efforts and achievement in supporting and promoting science, technology, engineering, and math education in Georgia.  From press release:

“Middle School: Carrollton Middle School, Carrollton
Carrollton Middle School’s S.T.E.M. initiative strives to fully prepare every student for the challenges and expectations of the community by providing the knowledge and resources needed to be successful, productive workers. The school houses a 1,140 square foot STEM lab, which provides hands-on, inquiry-based learning opportunities.”

Congratulations to all of the students, teachers and parents who put in the extra effort to make this a success!  Learn more

 

Carrollton City Schools Moves to the Cloud

Published Aug 24, 2012

CARROLLTON (August, 2012) – Fogo Data Centers and Carrollton City Schools have formed a partnership that will establish a more secure and reliable infrastructure for the school system’s information technology needs.  Through this partnership, Carrollton City Schools now joins the ranks of forward-thinking school systems taking advantage of the improved performance and cost savings offered by moving critical infrastructure systems to the “cloud,” a term used to describe off-site management of network systems. Fogo will host Carrollton’s student information system, PowerSchool, as well as other mission-critical applications.

“A critical component of our infrastructure is PowerSchool, our student information system.  Our ultimate priorities include maintaining student privacy, while providing maximum availability and communication for our educators and our parents,” said Mike Sanders, assistant superintendent of Carrollton City Schools. “Fogo allowed us to balance these priorities through the use of its cloud infrastructure.

“We also considered our fiscal responsibility to act as good stewards of the funds we have available; particularly with the current budgetary restraints and economic climate,” said Sanders. “Our move to Fogo’s cloud provides a significant, immediate reduction in IT expenditures. When you consider the improved performance of our system, together with the cost savings, it was an easy decision.”

Fogo specializes in managed IT infrastructure services designed specifically for hosting and supporting mission-critical applications.   Fogo’s flagship data center in Carrollton, Ga., features redundant power, redundant fiber connectivity, superior HVAC capacity and enterprise grade biometric and physical security.

“Our partnership with Carrollton City Schools furthers Fogo’s mission of serving as a ‘Community Cloud Center’ offering cutting-edge technology services to businesses and organizations in our area.  We are excited about the progress of similar partnerships with other school systems, community businesses and organizations following Carrollton City School’s progressive example,” said Brooks Snow, CEO, Fogo Data Centers.

Carrollton City Schools, located in Carrollton, Ga., is an award-winning school district serving more than 4,500 students.

Fogo owns and operates regional data centers (Community Cloud Centers) providing premium, turnkey solutions to support server, storage, and network needs. Services include: colocation, managed hosting, private clouds, and disaster recovery solutions.

For more information, contact Josh Rhine at jrhine@fogodatacenters.com

 

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Your Song of the Day – Madness

Published Aug 24, 2012

The Muse – Madness

Sounds like someone’s been listening to dubstep.

Enjoy!

 

 

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Paraskevidekatriaphobia

Published Aug 13, 2012

Fear of Friday the 13th.  I’ve seen the movies, heard the stories, and even spread some of the rumors. But that’s all it’s ever been for me is movies, stories, and rumors.  I’ve never really bought into the whole Friday the 13th thing……..until Friday July 13th 2012.

It was a dark dreary night with fog laying heavy on the pavement.  Ok, not really, it was a regular work day here at Fogo with a few usual Georgia pop-up thunderstorms making their way through town.  At 6:06 pm lightning struck near the Clem Substation, about 5 miles south of Carrollton, with a magnitude of -91 kA.  With the average bolt of negative lightning carrying 30 kA, this was a big’un.  Because we have two utility feeds coming into the facility, in most cases we would not have experienced an outage because the utility would have switched over to the backup feed, but according to the local provider there was a “mis-coordination of [the] automated switch.  Ultimately the normally closed switch saw operations and opened as it was supposed to; however, the normally open switch (backup feed) saw the same operations and would not close due to the loss of voltage.”

So in summary lightning struck and we lost power to the facility.  There were several of us here at the office when it happened, but the beauty of it was that we didn’t need to be.  Here is how the facility handled it:

6:06:35 pm – Lightning strike, lights flicker in the office, utility power is lost

– Building Management System sends alert of the power loss

– Flywheel UPS (A leg)  ATS Command Contact Closes and discharges power to Data Center

– Battery UPS (B leg) senses loss of voltage and goes “On Battery”

6:06:37 pm – Both generators kick on

6:06:42 pm – Generator 1 takes load and powers facility. Generator 2 is on standby.

6:06:52 pm – Battery UPS rectifier ON system Normal, “Off Battery”

6:07:08 pm – Flywheel UPS ATS Command Contact Opens, discharge complete

On Generator power…

7:26:14 pm – Utility is restored and Generators stay on for an additional 25 min stabilization phase and 5 min cool down

The facility, critical and non-critical, was on generator power for 1 hour and 19 min.  The data center never lost power.  We had a fuel truck on-call and ready in the event that power was not restored in several hours or days.

On a side note, that same night a similar storm hit Turner Field, the lights went out, and the Braves game was delayed for 16 min.  The lights stayed on at Fogo…..as they always do.

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Your Song of the Day – Ho Hey

Published Aug 3, 2012

The Lumineers – Ho Hey

Enjoy!

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Carrollton City Schools Announced as Finalists for S.T.E.M. Education Awards

Published Aug 3, 2012

The Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) and the TAG Education Collaborative (TAG-Ed) have announced the finalists for the first annual S.T.E.M. Education Awards. Fogo nominated the school’s ROV Program and we are proud to report that both the Carrollton High School and the Carrollton Middle School teams have been announced as finalists. Go Trojans!

These awards were created to recognize and celebrate schools, extracurricular programs, public-private partnerships, science agencies and post-secondary education outreach programs for outstanding efforts and achievement in supporting and promoting science, technology, engineering, and math education in Georgia.

The Carrollton Middle and Carrollton High School ROV Club are part of the Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) Center.  The MATE coordinates an international student underwater robotics (remotely operated vehicle or ROV) competition and a network of 21 regional ROV contests that take place across U.S. and in Canada, Hong Kong, Scotland, and Japan. Student teams from upper elementary, middle schools, high schools, home schools, community colleges, universities, and community organizations, such as the Boys and Girls Club and 4-H, participate. The competitions consists of three different “classes” that vary based on the sophistication of the ROVs and the mission requirements.

Last year the Carrollton High School team finished third in the International event held at NASA Neutral Buoyancy Lab in Houston Texas.   All of the seniors that left the program last year are now enrolled in engineering programs and several are pursuing careers in marine oceaneering.

“We applaud each of this year’s finalists for their extraordinary efforts to bolster awareness about the importance of STEM and for their hard work to increase student participation in science, technology, engineering and math programs,” said Michael Robertson, director of TAG-Ed. “Georgia will need to fill some 211,000 STEM-related jobs by 2018, so we are pleased to showcase so many great schools, programs and organizations that are helping to develop a strong future workforce for our state. ”

Winners will be announced during a special, half-day event on September 14 at the Savannah International Trade and Convention Center. Learn more

 

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Your Song of the Day – Welcome To Mystery

Published Jul 27, 2012

Plain White T’s – Welcome To Mystery

Enjoy!

 

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TAG TV | Radio Interview with Fogo CEO, Brooks Snow

Published Jul 26, 2012

Fogo CEO, Brooks Snow sits down and talks with TAG TV  and guest host Frank Baia, President of Global Speak. 

Check out more from TAG’s Tech Talk Series here.  

 

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Customer Experience: New Balance Shoes adds personal touch

Published Jul 25, 2012

Tip of the cap to the good people at New Balance Shoes for going the extra mile.

 

I was at my wife’s grandparents’ house this weekend and was thoroughly impresses with the story I heard.  My wife’s grandmother, Diane, had a set of nice flowers sitting in a pretty vase on her counter.  I commented on the arrangement and asked her where they came from and what the occasion was.  She told me that they were sent to her from New Balance.  Of course this got my interest, so I pressed on…

“So, New Balance just sent you flowers for no reason” asked.  With an ear-to-ear smile, Diane responded, “They were sent to congratulate me on becoming a great grandmother.”

*Pause* I guess now is a good time to tell you that my wife and I are expecting our first child in about 10 days and our daughter, Zoey, will be Diane’s first great grandchild.

“Oh.  That’s cool! Are you in some sort of Customer Loyalty program or something” I asked.  “No” she responded.

Diane stated that she was simply on the phone ordering a single pair of shoes last week and got to chatting with the customer service agent who was taking her order.  Diane went on about her awesome customer experience and told me that the “girl on the phone was so sweet – she let me ramble on and on about how excited I was that Zoey will be here soon and that I’ll be a great grandmother.  And Josh, it’s not like the conversation was just one sided either.  She told me about her family as well and we really connected.  It may sound crazy but I feel like I made a friend during that conversation.”

Diane continued to gush about how nice, sincere and genuine the sales agent was and then showed me the hand written card that came with the flowers.

Dear Diane,
                It was great speaking with you yesterday.  I really enjoyed our conversation!  Congratulations on becoming a Great Grandmother!
                                                  – Sincerely, Madison B.

New Balance Shoes goes the extra mile.

I was impressed and blown away to say the least.  Here was a (cough, cough) year old woman who just called to order a pair of shoes and during the course of the phone call, she strikes up a personal conversation with the sales agent and the two seem to really connect and have a personal moment.  Talk about a great customer experience!

We live in such an automated world these days that interactions like this are rare and should be acknowledged when a person (or company) extends themselves with an act like this.

At Fogo, we too pride ourselves on serving the customer.  One element of our corporate culture is “People still matter”.  Not only do we listen and tailor our solutions to what our client needs but we also make sure that every experience they have with us is enjoyable – whether it’s on the phone, via email, or on-site at one of our sweet, sweet data centers.  Like New Balance, we value our clients and go the extra mile.  That added level of personal touch is just one of the many things that separates us from other providers.

Have you had any interactions with companies that go the extra mile like this?  Let us know – Let’s celebrate the companies that get it right!

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Fogo Announces Compliance with SSAE 16 Type 2 Standards

Published Apr 5, 2012

Fogo Data Centers is pleased to announce that it has completed its standards auditing process to successfully obtain a Type 2 SSAE 16 SOC 1 for its facility in Carrollton, GA. Type 2 SSAE 16 SOC 1 provides better alignment with international standards and requires a written assertion from management on the design and operating effectiveness of the data center controls.

What Do These Audit Standards For?

The SAS 70 (Statement on Auditing Standards No. 70) was originally issued by the Auditing Standards Board of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) in 1992. The purpose of the SAS 70 report was to allow a service organization to have an examination of its internal controls performed on a periodic basis which could then be provided to its many clients. This allowed for auditors to gain assurance over controls at the service organization (or in Fogo’s case, hosted data center services) while freeing the service organization to focus on running their business.

SSAE 16 (Statement on Standards for Attestation Engagements No. 16) was created with the intention of bringing the United States up to code with the International Standards for Assurance Engagements, as well as to address a number of important areas which were not covered by the traditional SAS70 report. By replacing the old SAS 70, the SSAE 16 is now the authoritative guidance for reporting on service organizations, with an effective date of June 15, 2011.

Why Do These Audit Standards Matter?

By participating in the Type 2 SSAE 16 SOC 1 audit, Fogo can assure its customers that its data center operations meet a certain level of quality. The audit looks at Fogo’s processes, policies, procedures, and operational activities and validates everything is performing at optimal standards regarding security, availability, and operating integrity.

Participation in the audit also helps to demonstrate compliance with particular legal regulations that may be required by some customers. Many organizations, such as those that are publicly traded, involved with medical and payroll processing, or providers of financial services reporting, have a legal requirement to demonstrate SSAE 16 audit certification from their service providers. Our SSAE audit certification allows us to appropriately support these particular customers.

“Our successful completion of the SSAE 16 Type II audit is an important milestone for Fogo. We are committed to providing our clients with infrastructure and services that they can trust, and our completion of this rigorous audit exemplifies that commitment,” said Kyle Verzello, COO.  “It also reinforces Fogo’s position among the world’s elite data center operators, and validates to customers our willingness to take exhaustive steps to comprehensively support their business goals.”

For additional information on Fogo or its recent Type 2 SSAE 16 SOC 1 certification, contact Kyle Verzello at kverzello@fogodatacenters.com or at 800.542.8170

 

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